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Sunday, March 2, 2014

Why Stoke Deserve The Label of Cavemen

I was absolutely disgusted with what went on during Arsenal’s visit to the Britannia Stadium on Saturday. Yes the entire team performance, minus Szczęsny, was abysmal and embarrassing. Yes, the 1-0 defeat really puts a dent in Arsenal’s title chances and yes, the team has dropped in to third place (technically fourth as Manchester City have two games in hand).

While the loss hurts, what really upset me was watching a thug like Charlie Adam freely inflict injury upon Olivier Giroud and be allowed to go on as if it was just a part of the game. The fact that Laurent Koscielny was judged to have deliberately handled a ball while Adam and the rest of his teammates were allowed to kick out and inflict potential injury on Arsenal players without caution was disgraceful.

It’s debatable whether a penalty should have been awarded after a ball kicked in the air by Stoke’s Jon Walters hit Koscielny’s hand from a short distance. It looked accidental and not at all deliberate, but sometimes in football the decisions don’t go your team’s way. That’s fine, but when a referee sees an incident such as this and immediately makes the decision that player intentionally handled the ball you would expect that referee to see deliberate acts of aggression.

Referee Mike Jones might want to watch a replay of Saturday’s match as he missed some glaring infractions. In the first half Giroud was caught by Stoke’s Marc Wilson and Glenn Whelan causing Giroud to fall to the ground. It was then that Whelan appeared to step on Giroud’s ankle. Replays showed just that, yet unbelievably Jones decided that it was Giroud who was at fault and awarded a free kick to Stoke.

In the second half it was Charlie Adam’s turn to display his thuggery for all to see. With Giroud down on the grass, the camera clearly picked up Adam stamping on Giroud’s calf with full studs. Again, Jones did nothing and Adam was allowed to remain on the pitch.
Obviously every Arsenal fan remembers the potentially career ending injury that befell Aaron Ramsey at the Britannia in February of 2010. Luckily there were no broken bones this time as Giroud was able to get up after both incidents and play on.

It’s no wonder that Stoke and their fans are referred to as the cavemen. Proving this is the fact that a Stoke fanzine had been warning Aaron Ramsey to expect a hostile reception at the Britannia. What? Ramsey’s career was almost ended by a Stoke player, yet four years later he and Arsenal are continually the subject of vile venom from Stoke fans. Talk about a clear case of blaming the victim. As fate would have it, Ramsey is currently out injured and did not make the trip with the team. That didn’t stop the Stoke fans from booing every Arsenal player and singing depraved chants towards Arsene Wenger.

Adam doing what he does best to Gareth Bale

Back to the head cavemen Charlie Adam. He has a history of recklessness. In his debut for Blackpool in 2009 Adam saw red for two bookable offenses. Adam’s best was yet to come. In May of 2011 he ruptured ligaments in Gareth Bale’s ankle which ruled the player out for 3 months. Once again a referee didn’t see the incident and Adam got away with no punishment.

Then in a July 2012 friendly in Baltimore, Adam was back at it. Once again Bale was the victim of a late Adam challenge. He left the match on crutches and later branded Adam a “coward”.

Adam added another Tottenham player to his victims list this past December when Paulinho was the recipient of another overzealous challenge. This one caused ligament damage in Paulinho’s ankle and ruled the player out for a month.

There’s a saying that nothing brings people together like a common enemy and that is exactly what Adam is to both Arsenal fans and Tottenham fans. There was actually a show of unity between both the clubs’ supporters this weekend on Twitter in their mutual contempt for Adam. That right there is proof of what a thug Adam is viewed as.

Charlie Adam the most loathsome player in the Prem. #MOTD
— Kevin Coaker (@kevincoaker) March 2, 2014

Why Does Charlie Adam always get away with this thuggery every game?
— DA GOONER (@MOZAK91) March 2, 2014

Charlie Adam sticks one on an opponent. Very unlike him.
— Matty (@Yid_Poker) March 2, 2014

For those that think Adam and Stoke are unfairly being
labeled as reckless, it is worth noting that Stoke are currently at the bottom
of the Fair
Play table with 67 points including the most yellow cards in the league
with 61 total.